1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to peer to peer printing over a network and, more specifically, a method of peer to peer printing to a virtual printer over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growing presence of multi-function devices on enterprise networks, there has been a trend to allow these devices not only to perform a specific task, but to perform many different tasks. Many of these tasks require the ability to retrieve information from other devices on the enterprise network.
An example of this would be virtual printing schemes where users could send a print job to an unspecified printer and retrieve the hard copy document from any convenient print device connected to the network. In this example, the document information is sent from the user's device to a central server where it is stored. Accordingly, the print device that the user chooses to print from accesses this central server and retrieves the print information for printing.
The problems with this approach are the need for a central server to store print information and the total cost associated with its presence. Needing a central server is not always practical because it places the entire burden of storing and distributing print information on one network device. Moreover, the need to have this server present on the network to sustain remote printing is an added expense compared to a system not needing one.